What made the news 25, 50 and 100 years ago in Buxton and High Peak

Princess Margaret on a visit to Buxtons Pavilion Gardens in November 1993 to attend the worlds biggest first aid competition.

25 YEARS AGO

Serpentine Nursery - used to produce up to 65,000 bedding out plants a year for use in High Peak - could be set to close.

High Peak Borough Council said the closure - if rubber-stamped - would save around £12,000 per year.

Council leader George Bingham said: “This is a sad day. Over the years the nursery has produced thousands of beautiful plants which we have all been able to enjoy.”

• The possibility of a further 40,000 lorry journeys a year in the High Peak has been described by MP Charles Hendry as a ‘devastating threat’.

Mr Hendry asked transport ministers to intervene to stop the ‘catastrophic effects’ of increases in rail freight costs.

50 YEARS AGO

A new warden-operated housing scheme for elderly residents is to be officially opened at Alma Square, Fairfield.

It will be followed in late spring by the opening of the block ‘Grangeside’ on South Avenue, and in the summer by the third block under construction at Cote Heath, to be called ‘Marian Court’.

• Reporting on the recent snowfall in Buxton, ‘Mond Mail’, an ICI newspaper, commented: “At Buxton, where they usually manage to take the odd snowfall in their stride, a continuous blizzard of over 36 hours brought two feet of snow with drifts of up to six feet.

Hindlow Quarry was virtually cut off, and personnel had to be employed on digging a way in and out of the works.”

100 YEARS AGO

The first National Kitchen to be inaugurated in the Borough of Buxton has opened in the Fairfield Wesleyan School.

The Mayor of Buxton, W. F. Mill, wished it every success.

It was needless for him to point out the gravity of the situation; the great scarcity of food and difficulty in obtaining it at the present time.

Kitchens such as this, he went on, were being started with a view not only of saving food, but of providing good meals at reasonable cost.

The following week’s Buxton Herald reported how the kitchen had far exceeded expectations, with nearly one thousand dinners being supplied during the first four days.